Foo - Stop me before I kill...

I have a patch of sweet potatoes in my backyard. A groundhog has moved into the neighborhood. Grounghogs love to eat sweet potatoe vines. How do I keep him/her from getting into my sweet potatoes?
If you care for the life of this varmint, tell me quick. My .22 is sighted in for hollowpoints.:notamused:209546
You can barely make out it's bigfoot-esque form in the very middle of this picture. I believe they are in season.

http://www.natzraya.org/Articles/Appetizer/gladiatordown.jpg

grrr - I have one in the backyard - it killed one of my potted plants (marigolds of all things) - I mean it ripped the plant out of the pot and tossed it aside to get the roots and the stupid squirrels are working on the other plant - that I moved up from the bottom of the steps to my railing out onto my little back deck. Dam things.

Take him for a drive and talk out your differences.
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_jRy2awUx1Zs/SYam_yhdcHI/AAAAAAAAAHI/_jZKfbTo56c/s320/p_groundhog_day.gif

get a dog.

Take a hint from Patrick Stewart: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SjpObUPEJpg

Things ain't lookin' good for the rodent.
Any recipes?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bv87T1CQF8E

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3lYm0c7gYyU&NR=1

Groundhog and sweet potatoes would make and awfully tasty pie. Growing any carrots in that garden?

http://entertainment.blogs.foxnews.com/files/2010/01/caddyshack_502.jpg

Is this the situation?

Groundhogs like to live under my front porch. We catch them in a live trap baited with apples and relocate them into a woods 5 miles away.

Your options:

Shoot it if you are using a .22 aim for the body, if you are going for the head, you might need a bigger gun.
Find where it enters and exits, get a large have a heart trap and if you have a river nearby teach it to swim or relocate it 20 miles away.
Or get tomatoes and fill them with rat poison and leave them out there for the groundhog to munch on. Won't kill them if it's big enough, but it will make it sick as all get out and can act as a deterrent if small enough the rat poison will kill it.

At war with a groundhog atm as well and in my situation having train tracks by the back yard and too close to other houses, so shooting is not an option here. Been laying out tomatoes and trapping and relocating. So far 1 small one ate a tomato the first day and had to dispose of it, got another small one via trap and that one went up the mountain that is 30 miles away. Caught a medium sized one in the trap and was relocated 30 miles away.

Was at 4 when it started, now down to one, the mother, the one that ate 90% of the lillies at the house. Big ugly sucker to boot. May wind up having to shoot it, not sure if the trap will hold it and previous times it has avoided the trap.

As for squirrels: Small have a heart with a piece of multi-grain bread with chunky peanut butter will do the trick.



Edit: Oh yeah, get it before it gets to your car/truck, groundhogs can wreak havoc on the electrical system.

Groundhogs like to live under my front porch. We catch them in a live trap baited with apples and relocate them into a woods 5 miles away.


Way too close, you're likely catching the same ones over and over again.

My .22 is sighted in for hollowpoints.

Go for it. CBee .22's will do a number and a half on a groundhog.

Way too close, you're likely catching the same ones over and over again.

5 miles away . . . across a bridge and a 4 lane highway. It takes about 2 years for them to return, or for new ones to take their place. :)

We've named it "The Groundhog Relocation Project." :lol:

get a dog.

This. Preferably one of the Terriers. But be ready for blood on their faces. My schnauzer's are killing rabbits daily (but protecting the tomatos!)

Italian Schnauzer's? The Axis powers live again.

5 miles away . . . across a bridge and a 4 lane highway. It takes about 2 years for them to return, or for new ones to take their place. :)

We've named it "The Groundhog Relocation Project." :lol:

"Groundhog Relocation Project" would be an excellent name for a band.

Make sure you dont shoot the tomatoes ;)

What if you shot the ground hogs with a tomato gun?



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ED4Xh0Z3UQc
I would get a dachsund and/or a border collie. My border collie runs down squirrels if they stray into our back yard. I am sure she could run down a groundhog. If not, she would send the dachsund in for the tunnel rat work. Our dachsund killed a rabbit recently. Did the crazy head shaking thing with it and the rabbit head became separated from the rabbit body.

I vote for the C4 route.

I vote for the C4 route.

When the only tool in your box is a hammer, all your problems begin to look like nails. just saying.

When the only tool in your box is a hammer, all your problems begin to look like nails. just saying.

I have multiple tools sir.
Primacord.
ANFO.
C4
RDX
Picric Acid
and a few others.

I have multiple tools sir.
Claw hammer.
Sledge hammer.
roofing hammer
tack hammer
Ball peen hammer
and a few others.

exactly

I would get a dachsund and/or a border collie. My border collie runs down squirrels if they stray into our back yard. I am sure she could run down a groundhog. If not, she would send the dachsund in for the tunnel rat work. Our dachsund killed a rabbit recently. Did the crazy head shaking thing with it and the rabbit head became separated from the rabbit body.

Two dogs is key.

When I was young, we lived in a similarly populated area (i.e. we could shoot firearms in the yard) and we had two dogs. One was a beagle, who's mother was a champion hunting dog and who's father was rather glad that she escaped one day. This dog was fast enough to chase rabbits down by itself, but would never kill anything. It would simply corner it. Before the second dog arrived, we had to dispatch the groundhogs ourselves after the dog cornered it.

One day we found a stray. A Shepard mix. She had been dropped off and it had obviously been loved by the girl who put the note in her collar. This dog was the sweetest dog ever. She appeared to have been hit by a car at one point, as she was a bit gimpy and had a rather odd gait. But she was a vicious killer. When these two teamed up, the groundhog had only seconds to live.

The ground hog is still alive, but only because it has yet to stray into the potatoe patch. I saw a rabbit in with the sweet potatoes this morning! I'm thinking I need some kind of spray for the leaves to make them inedible. I'm way outnumbered by rabbits and the garden borders an area of thick undergrowth. Perfect cover for varmints and I'm all out of napalm.

When I was a kid my friend had a dalmation that would kill groundhogs then bite a hole in their stomach and eat the intestine like one big, long string of spaghetti. Sammy was a cool dog.

Squeeze the trigger already. It's not like there's a shortage of groundhogs, right?

The ground hog is still alive, but only because it has yet to stray into the potatoe patch. I saw a rabbit in with the sweet potatoes this morning! I'm thinking I need some kind of spray for the leaves to make them inedible. I'm way outnumbered by rabbits and the garden borders an area of thick undergrowth. Perfect cover for varmints and I'm all out of napalm.

When I was a kid my friend had a dalmation that would kill groundhogs then bite a hole in their stomach and eat the intestine like one big, long string of spaghetti. Sammy was a cool dog.

just go pee on them.